And the reality of work and bills to pay and waiting in the high school parking lot for her kid to come back from camp certainly gave her a dose of reality.
Though Tara had noticed two things when she met Nathan at the bus to pick him up from camp. One, he was happy to see her, which was kind of surprising. And two, apparently her cool factor with her son had suddenly jumped several notches. Not because of anything she’d done but because of the man she was dating.
At this point, she’d take anything as long as he had more than grunting, one-word conversations with her. He seemed animated and happy, and his friends surrounded her and asked her a hundred questions about Mick and football as if she’d suddenly become his agent instead of the woman he was dating.
She’d had to back them off and explain she knew nothing about the upcoming season or what free agents San Francisco might sign, and no, she wasn’t hosting a giant get-together for Nathan’s entire team and inviting Mick’s team.
Good Lord, was this what Mick went through with the media? She could barely handle Nathan’s friends and teammates, let alone hounding journalists.
“So when’s he coming over again, Mom?” Nathan asked her for the fiftieth time as she sorted through his foul-smelling laundry.
“I have no idea.”
“Did he call you today?”
“No, he did not.”
“Does he call you every day?”
She rolled her eyes. “No, he doesn’t.”
“Well, why not? Did you piss him off?”
She turned on the washing machine and backed her son out of the room. “Nathan, give it a rest.”
Her cell phone rang, and Nathan hollered, “I’ll get it,” before she even had a chance to close the door to the laundry room.
She didn’t even bother to yell at him. What was the point? It would probably be Maggie, and he’d toss the phone at her in disgust.
“It was great. Yeah, we did workouts in the morning, then drills in the afternoon. Coaches taught us new plays from playbooks, stuff we never did before, so it was cool. And the drills were like the real deal, NFL stuff, ya know?”
Had to be Mick. Nathan would not be discussing football camp with Maggie. She went into the living room where Nathan had flopped onto the sofa, making himself at home with her cell phone. And her man.
Not that Mick was her man or anything.
“Yeah, the food sucked, but we didn’t mind. The lake was awesome. Going to bed early wasn’t too bad because they worked the shit out of us the whole day, so we were pretty wiped by the end of the day anyway.”
“Nathan, language.”
Nathan rolled his eyes, listened, then laughed. “Yeah, she gets on me about that sh—I mean about that stuff all the time. Yeah, you’re probably right. Okay, sure. Here she is.”
He begrudgingly handed her the phone. “It’s Mick.”
She smiled up at him. “Oh, really? I thought it might be Maggie.”
“Funny, Mom. Real funny.”
Nathan stood and watched her. Tara cradled the phone against her chest.
“Do you mind?”
“You listened while I was talking to him.”
“You’re not dating him.”
Nathan rolled his eyes. “Whatever.” He left the room and headed upstairs.
“Hi.”
Mick laughed. “Hi, yourself. Sounds like he had a good time at football camp.”
“I suppose he did. I was mauled by the players when he got off the bus. Apparently he told them I was dating you, so now I’m very cool.”
“How nice for you. So now they want to go out with you?”
Now she laughed. “Uh, no. Now they all want to come over for dinner when you’re here. They want nothing to do with me.”
“I’ll try to hit one of their practices, if you don’t think Nathan’s coach would mind.”
“I think Nathan’s coach would probably fall all over you in gratitude.”
“What have you been up to?”
“Working. You?”
“Same. I was wondering if you and Nathan were free this weekend.”
“I’ve got nothing on the calendar. I can check with Nathan, but I’m sure he doesn’t. Why?”
“I’d like to fly you to Saint Louis.”
“Saint Louis. Why?”
“It’s my hometown and where my family lives. No big thing, but it’s my brother Gavin’s birthday. There’s a party. He has a home game Saturday afternoon, then there’s a party at my parents’ bar that night. Thought you both might like to come.”
As usual, Mick’s lifestyle made her head spin. “Um, wow. Let me think about this for a minute.”
“It’s okay if you can’t make it. I understand it’s last minute, but they like to throw these things together at the drop of a hat. So if you don’t want to come—”
“No, it’s not that at all. Let me call you back, okay?”